Kurt Busch made Forbes' list of the top 10 most disliked athletes. (AP Photo)

Busch, the 2004 Cup champion, is trying to revive his career and repair his image after a series of emotional outbursts and off-track incidents in the past two years. He was 10th on the list last year. In 2006, Busch was third on GQ’s list of most hated athletes.

“I actually went from third to 10th, so I think I improved,” Busch said after making the Forbes list last year. “I made the top-10 list of something.”

Busch had set out last year to improve his image. He ran decent for Phoenix Racing but a few weeks after NASCAR placed him on probation for driving recklessly on pit road at Darlington, he was suspended for a week for berating a Sporting News reporter.

He didn’t find himself in NASCAR’s doghouse much after that, although he was parked at Talladega for endangering a safety worker who was at his damaged car as he drove off.

Busch was named the driver for Furniture Row Racing late last season, and team general manager Joe Garone said recently that the team has not had any problems with him.

“(Our experience so far) has been terrific to be perfectly honest. It has not been what people might think,” Garone said last month. “It’s been unbelievable.

“His dedication to driving the racecar and getting things right is truly incredible. I’ve worked with a lot of drivers, and there is not anybody in my world that I work with that is as focused and dedicated and talented as Kurt is.”

Lance Armstrong tops the Forbes list with an appeal rating of 15 percent, as calculated by Nielsen Sports and the market research firm E-Poll. Busch has an appeal rating of 27 percent.

Busch has dubbed himself “The Outlaw” and said in an offseason documentary that, “I’ve created my own situations but I can’t get over them as fast as others.”

It’s likely that Busch won’t be too concerned with the latest Forbes ranking.

“My image is what it is,” he said in the documentary in November. “It’s who they say that I am. I’ve lived two lives it seems like the last, … three years. And whatever they write is whatever they write. I’m done fighting the battle.”